Peter Medak

Hungarian-born Peter Medak escaped to England after the 1956 uprising in his homeland. He spent an apprenticeship rising from assistant cameraman to second assistant director with the 1962 remake of "...
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Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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Worked in major British film studios as assistant cameraman, assistant director and second unit director

Helmed the outlandish noirish "Romeo Is Bleeding"

Returned to London to set up Universal's English operation as executive producer; work included producing and directing some episodes of TV series, "Court Martial"

Directed "Species II"

First credit as associate producer, "Kaleidoscope"

First feature film credit, "Phantom of the Opera" (as second assistant director)

Helmed "The Ruling Class" starring Peter O'Toole

Helmed the TNT remake of "The Hunchback" starring Mandy Patinkin and Salma Hayek

Escaped from Budapest and went to England during Hungarian uprising

Began film training at ABPC studios in Budapest at age 19

Directed first feature, "Negatives"

Signed long-term contract with Universal studios in Hollywood where he worked as asistant producer and second unit director on TV productions, "Arrest and Trial", "Channing" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour"

Directed episodes of the NBC police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street"

Returned to the milieu of London with the biopic "The Krays", about the rise and fall of British gangster-brothers

Had modest success with the comedy "Zorro, the Gay Blade"

First credit as second unit director, "Funeral in Berlin"

First feature film as associate director, "Fathom" (also second unit director)

Summary

Hungarian-born Peter Medak escaped to England after the 1956 uprising in his homeland. He spent an apprenticeship rising from assistant cameraman to second assistant director with the 1962 remake of "The Phantom of the Opera". The following year, he began directing for TV for Universal and entered features in 1968 with "Negatives". Medak was responsible for one of the most deliriously vicious satires of English upper-crust folly, "The Ruling Class" (1972), featuring a tour de force central performance by Peter O'Toole. The director demonstrated his comedic touch with the middling "Zorro, the Gay Blade" (1981). The best known of Medak's subsequent films, "The Krays" (1990), was a violent look at a rather different segment of English society which featured pop singers Gary and Martin Kemp in the roles of two of Britain's most notorious gangsters while "Let Him Have It" (1991) was a based-on-fact story of a 50s murder case that involved a teenager of questionable intelligence. He also helmed the stylish contemporary noir "Romeo Is Bleeding" (1993). More recently, Medak has concentrated on small screen work, helming episodes of the acclaimed NBC series "Homicide: Life on the Street" and the TNT remake "The Hunchback" (1997), starring Mandy Patinkin and Salma Hayek.

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Julia Migenes

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Carolyn Seymour

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"The most important thing I've learned about this business is to never give up, under any circumstances. You have to hammer out your point of view and fax it and repeat it every day 10 million times. Eventually, someone will listen." --Peter Medak to PREMIERE, January 1992